綠色科技能否防止福島事件重演?
????關(guān)于如何才能保護(hù)環(huán)境,以及如何在保護(hù)環(huán)境的過程中大賺幾億美元的點子一直層出不窮。不過究竟哪些點子才真的管用? ????是億萬富翁湯姆?希伯的新作么?它旨在通過使用智能軟件,從根本上改善大公司的能源使用和碳排放,希伯給這個公司起了個故弄玄虛的名字——C3。抑或是Global Thermostat公司推出的“負(fù)碳”技術(shù)?該公司稱這項技術(shù)能直接從空氣中吸收二氧化碳。(至于能量,該公司則使用熔煉等現(xiàn)有工業(yè)流程中所產(chǎn)生的余熱,這種能量目前通常都被浪費掉了。)核電本來是無碳技術(shù),不過如果日本當(dāng)前的核危機(jī)導(dǎo)致核電發(fā)展陷入長期衰退,那么碳捕捉技術(shù)就會變得極具吸引力。 ????日前召開的《財富》雜志(Fortune)的頭腦風(fēng)暴綠色會議(Brainstorm Green)上,云集了倡導(dǎo)綠色運動的美國政界名流、《財富》美國500強(qiáng)高管和許多剛剛踏足綠色領(lǐng)域的新面孔。許多從事綠色科技的企業(yè)都在會上公布了自己的計劃。 ????例如湯姆?希伯是做數(shù)據(jù)庫軟件發(fā)家的,他剛涉足生態(tài)領(lǐng)域不久。他的C3從2009年起就開始保密,不過希伯計劃在這次大會上談及C3。希伯軟件公司提交給美國證交會的一份檔案顯示,該公司去年10月通過一次私募發(fā)行募集了4800萬美元,幾乎使它的總資金增長了一倍。希伯已經(jīng)組建了一個藍(lán)籌股董事會,成員包括美國前國務(wù)卿康多莉扎?賴斯和美國前能源部長斯潘塞?亞伯拉罕。 ????雖然C3公司的網(wǎng)站很簡單,內(nèi)容也模糊不明,不過早些時候人們普遍猜測,希伯可能會利用他的軟件知識,為企業(yè)建立一種輕松、自動化的方式,來追蹤并交易碳排放。這種方法在碳排放限額交易(cap-and-trade)或碳稅體系下可能最為有效。不過這兩種政策在美國似乎都行不通,至少在短期內(nèi)是不可行的。(碳交易市場是否是死路一條?這很可能是本次大會的另一個主要話題。) 福島危機(jī)會如何重塑環(huán)境爭論? ????除了Global Thermostat公司外,位于紐約的乞力馬扎羅能源公司(Kilimanjaro Energy)也表示,它可以從空氣中直接捕捉二氧化碳。不過這家公司胸懷大志,它所想的并不僅僅是在核電的應(yīng)用衰退后,及時搶占一席之地,而是想要改變?nèi)藗儗Χ趸嫉目捶?,把它從一種債務(wù)看成一種資產(chǎn):“大氣中的二氧化碳是一項巨大的資源,如果將它轉(zhuǎn)變成有用的產(chǎn)品,那就可以幫助人類完成碳循環(huán)?!?/p> ????Transphorm公司也是一家胸懷大志的企業(yè)。該公司表示,它可以將目前所有可再生能源的生產(chǎn)控制在對環(huán)境無害的水平上的。它的秘訣是:消除電網(wǎng)在電能轉(zhuǎn)換過程中流失的大量的電(例如通過上下調(diào)整電壓)。這種技術(shù)是一種重大突破。無論本世紀(jì)的主宰能源是來自巖層的煤、天然氣還是太陽能,它都同樣適用。也許福島核電站泄露出的放射性物質(zhì)沒有什么神奇的綠色科技可以去除,但在綠色領(lǐng)域里,的確有許多替代能源可以代替核能。 ????也許對于清潔環(huán)境的追求,不應(yīng)該僅僅指望某項能改變游戲規(guī)則的科技。有許多不起眼的方法也可以使綠色決策生錢。例如一家名叫ecoATM的公司就設(shè)計了一種回收舊手機(jī)的機(jī)器。只要你把舊手機(jī)放進(jìn)去,這臺機(jī)器就會吐出現(xiàn)金。ecoATM的雄心壯志可能相對較小,不過它們更現(xiàn)實。它減少了填埋垃圾中的有毒物質(zhì),又讓更多的錢進(jìn)了消費者的腰包。這一策略可能會提醒綠色科技的決策者,所有的變革——不管它有多大,基本上都是從小事開始的。 ????譯者:樸成奎 |
????Bright ideas about how to help the environment and in the process make a few bucks -- or perhaps even a few billion bucks -- abound. But which of them could actually work? ????Might it be billionaire Tom Siebel's new venture, the mysteriously-named C3, which aims to use clever software to radically improve big companies' energy use and carbon output?* Or perhaps it will be Global Thermostat, which says its "carbon negative" technology can suck carbon dioxide right out of the air. (For power the company uses the excess heat generated by existing industrial processes such as smelting, energy that currently goes to waste.) Carbon capture technology would look especially appealing if Japan's recent catastrophe sends zero-carbon nuclear power into a long-term decline. ????Many of the contenders will get a chance to reveal their plans at Fortune's annual Brainstorm Green conference, which starts today and brings together a who's-who of the green movement from government, the Fortune 500 and all manner of newcomers. ????Siebel, who made his fortune in database software, is one eco-neophyte. He plans to talk about C3, which has been in stealth mode since 2009. In October the company raised $48 million in a private offering, according to a filing with the SEC, roughly doubling its total funding. Siebel has recruited a blue chip board, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former energy secretary Spencer Abraham. ????While the company's minimalist web site remains vague, some early speculation centered around the idea that Siebel would use his software knowledge to create an easy, automated way for companies to track and trade their carbon emissions. That would likely work best under a cap-and-trade or carbon tax system. Neither policy seems politically viable in the U.S., at least for the time being. (Whether the idea of carbon-trading markets is doomed will likely be another major topic at the conference.) How will the ongoing crisis at Fukushima reshape the environmental debate? ????Beside Global Thermostat, a New York City based company called Kilimanjaro Energy also says it can capture carbon dioxide out of the air. Yet that company is thinking of nothing so small as merely making up for the potentially diminished use of carbon-free nuclear power. It wants to change the way people think about carbon dioxide, from a liabiity to an asset: "Atmospheric CO2 is a vast resource whose transformation into useful products can help humanity close the carbon cycle." ????Another company with big dreams, Transphorm, says it can effectively match the current output of all renewable energy sources at no harm to the environment. Its secret: eliminate the vast amount of electricity that is now lost by the electric grid as it transforms it from one form to another (say by stepping its voltage up or down.) That's an efficiency breakthrough that could work no matter what form of fuel -- coal, natural gas from shale, solar -- ends up powering the grid in the coming century. Perhaps there's no green magic bullet that can help clean up the radioactive material spewing from the Fukushima plant, but there are, in other words, lots of alternatives to nuclear emerging from the green energy space. ????Then again, perhaps the quest for a cleaner environment shouldn't rely on the hunt for a game-changing technology. There are lots of little ways for making green decisions pay. A company called ecoATM has designed a machine that can accept old cell phones and spit out cash for turning them in. Its plans may be relatively small, but they are real. Less toxic materials go in the landfill, more money goes into consumers' wallets. Their strategy should serve as a reminder to greentech thinkers that all change, no matter how big, generally starts quite small. |
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